by Noel Weaver
August 19, 1955 was the date of the worst floods in a long time in New England and some other parts of the northeast. On the New Have Railroad there was much damage especially between Derby and Winsted, The Berkshire, The Canal north of Plainville and in the Putnam and other areas of Eastern Connecticut. The bridge just west of Putnam was badly damaged enough that the railroad elected not to rebuild and as a result the through line between Hartford and Boston was severed. At the time of the flood the line had three round trips between Hartford and Boston two of which originated and terminated at Waterbury. It also was the route of the East Wind between New York and Portland, Maine which ran via New Haven, Hartford, Willimantic, Putnam and Worcester on the New Haven. The Naugy also lost several bridgs the biggest one of which carried four tracks at Waterbury and included SS-202 (Bank Street Junction) and a signal bridge on the Naugatuck River Bridge.
I was hobbling around using a cane at the time still recovering from a serious skiing injury in March of 1955 and I remember that Friday morning very well. We had no electricity but when we found that we had no water either then we knew it was pretty serious. My father drove us down to a place where we could see the river from high ground and the Naugatuck River looked more like the Mississippi River at the tme. We saw all sorts of debris flowing down with the flood waters and even a couple of freight cars (boxcars in this case) were also seen floating down the river. I never ever saw anything like this and I hope I never again see anything like it either.
As to the New Haven Railroad the line to Derby, Devon and beyond was out for months as a through route, they built a wooden trestle as a temporary means to get across the river at the west (timetable direction) end of the Waterbury Yard and to allow access to the enginehouse as well as considerable freight sidings in that area. They reached Waterbury from Berlin via Plainville a week or two after the flood and so we had some freight operations as well as a couple of passenger trains during the week to Hartford but no service to Winsted, Bridgeport or to Boston beyond Hartford. The last train to make it through out of Waterbury was the Winsted - Bridgeport train 465 which left Waterbury around 10:00 PM on Thursday, August 18, 1955. The last train in was a Budd Car from Bridgeport which arrived about the same time. There was another train that left later that Thursday evening, a special, it seems that there was a movie premier that took place that Thursday in Waterbury at the State Theater in the all day pouring rain which included a bunch of movie stars and other big wheels and they departed Waterbury close to midnight that night on a special train powered by an RS-3 and which included a couple of stainless steel coaches and the observation car Bunker Hill properly pointed on the rear. I don't know just how far this special train got but eventually it had to return to Waterbury because of flooding and the equipment spent considerable time at the passenger yard next to the engine house in Waterbury until the temporary wooden trestle was put in to use at Bank Street. As I mentioned earlier SS-202 (Bank Street Junction Tower) was a casualty of this, a four track bridge that was washed out was replaced by a two track bridge, one for the remaining main track and the other for a yard track from the yard to the enginehouse which also connected to the Dublin Street Branch and to the spur up to the Connecticut Lumber on the old line to Danbury.
Most of the freight business recovered for a period but the passenger service to Bridgeport and New York was not resumed until the following February and then with no more through trains and a reduced number of round trips to Bridgeport where the pasengers had to change trains just like they have to today.
As long as I am still around I will never let this date pass without notice, I used to post this on the NHRHTA site as well but for sometime now I have refuse to post anything more there and I will not post this there either.
More floods hit Connecticut again later in 1955 but that is another story for another time.
Noel Weaver
I was hobbling around using a cane at the time still recovering from a serious skiing injury in March of 1955 and I remember that Friday morning very well. We had no electricity but when we found that we had no water either then we knew it was pretty serious. My father drove us down to a place where we could see the river from high ground and the Naugatuck River looked more like the Mississippi River at the tme. We saw all sorts of debris flowing down with the flood waters and even a couple of freight cars (boxcars in this case) were also seen floating down the river. I never ever saw anything like this and I hope I never again see anything like it either.
As to the New Haven Railroad the line to Derby, Devon and beyond was out for months as a through route, they built a wooden trestle as a temporary means to get across the river at the west (timetable direction) end of the Waterbury Yard and to allow access to the enginehouse as well as considerable freight sidings in that area. They reached Waterbury from Berlin via Plainville a week or two after the flood and so we had some freight operations as well as a couple of passenger trains during the week to Hartford but no service to Winsted, Bridgeport or to Boston beyond Hartford. The last train to make it through out of Waterbury was the Winsted - Bridgeport train 465 which left Waterbury around 10:00 PM on Thursday, August 18, 1955. The last train in was a Budd Car from Bridgeport which arrived about the same time. There was another train that left later that Thursday evening, a special, it seems that there was a movie premier that took place that Thursday in Waterbury at the State Theater in the all day pouring rain which included a bunch of movie stars and other big wheels and they departed Waterbury close to midnight that night on a special train powered by an RS-3 and which included a couple of stainless steel coaches and the observation car Bunker Hill properly pointed on the rear. I don't know just how far this special train got but eventually it had to return to Waterbury because of flooding and the equipment spent considerable time at the passenger yard next to the engine house in Waterbury until the temporary wooden trestle was put in to use at Bank Street. As I mentioned earlier SS-202 (Bank Street Junction Tower) was a casualty of this, a four track bridge that was washed out was replaced by a two track bridge, one for the remaining main track and the other for a yard track from the yard to the enginehouse which also connected to the Dublin Street Branch and to the spur up to the Connecticut Lumber on the old line to Danbury.
Most of the freight business recovered for a period but the passenger service to Bridgeport and New York was not resumed until the following February and then with no more through trains and a reduced number of round trips to Bridgeport where the pasengers had to change trains just like they have to today.
As long as I am still around I will never let this date pass without notice, I used to post this on the NHRHTA site as well but for sometime now I have refuse to post anything more there and I will not post this there either.
More floods hit Connecticut again later in 1955 but that is another story for another time.
Noel Weaver
